Awake
by TheInvisibleQuestion
Summary: In a surprising turn of events, Remus and Tonks wake up in the Great Hall.


**_Preface: _**_I'm just playing in JKR's sandbox here..._

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><p><em>Remus...<em>

Everything was so dark...

_Remus..._

It was so quiet...

_Remus!_

Remus blinked, and the world exploded in colour, light, and sound. He felt a little dazed. The hall—the _Great_ Hall—was a shambles. Rubble was piled everywhere. People were walking, sitting, talking, sobbing. Stretchers lay in rows, some with blankets over bodies, others without blankets; Remus was on one of these stretchers. The one next to him held a familiar face, the woman he loved. She was unconscious.

He reached over and touched her hand. "Nymphadora?" His voice was hoarse and his throat was dry. She didn't stir. Someone near him gasped.

"Remus!" The voice belonged to a woman with flaming red hair. After a moment, Remus remembered she was Molly Weasley. "Arthur, Remus is alive!" Molly sounded incredulous.

"Merlin's beard!" exclaimed a man with red hair: Arthur Weasley.

"What happened?" Remus asked, his voice hoarse and uneven.

"Remus?" came another voice, this one also familiar. A large black man appeared in Remus' field of vision: Kingsley Shacklebolt. "But you—you were dead an hour ago."

"I was?"

Molly shooed Arthur and Kingsley away. "It's a long story, Remus. You... well, I suppose you didn't actually _die_, but you've been out for a couple of hours."

"What happened?"

"We won."

"We won?" Remus wasn't sure what there was to have won. "Won what?"

"Why, the war, of course, Remus."

Remus strained his memory, and recalled the battle. He recalled seeing Antonin Dolohov raise his wand, but he didn't remember anything that followed. "He's dead?"

"It's a long story, but yes, You-Know-Who's been defeated for good."

Remus looked at Nymphadora. When he looked back at Molly Weasley, she was wearing a sorrowful expression. Remus shook Nymphadora's hand. "Nymphadora!"

"Bellatrix Lestrange... poor Tonks had no chance; she was too focused on killing Dolohov to revenge you, Remus. I'm sorry..."

"She's not dead," Remus said. He would have known if she was. Wouldn't he? "She's just asleep."

"I'm sorry, Remus."

Just then, Remus felt the fingers in his hand twitch, then tighten. "Don't... call me... Nymphadora..."

Molly gasped, and Remus laughed relievedly. Nymphadora blinked and looked at him. "Wotcher, Remus."

"_You_ were supposed to stay home, _Nymphadora_."

"And leave you? I'm an Auror, Remus."

Kingsley and Arthur returned then, accompanied now by a red-haired girl—Ginny Weasley, Remus remembered—and a red-headed young man Remus recognised as one of the Weasleys.

"Tonks! You're alive," Ginny breathed.

"Wotcher, Ginny." Nymphadora started to sit up, but fell back on her stretcher almost immediately. "Headache. What happened?"

"We won," Ginny said quickly. "Harry did it! We all thought he was dead, but he wasn't—"

"Ginny, dear, that's enough. I think we ought to let these two rest."

The Weasley boy nodded to Remus. "But it's good to have you back, Romulus." George, that was his name, Remus remembered.

"Where..." Remus trailed off, his question answered by the look on George's face. "I'm sorry."

George nodded tersely and left. Molly ushered Ginny and the others away as well, leaving Remus with his wife.

"Dora..."

"I want to go home, Remus. I want to make sure Teddy's okay..."

_Teddy_. His son. "We'll go. But I want a minute of fresh air."

"Me too. Awful stuffy in here."

Remus sat up slowly, then helped Nymphadora up. The two slipped out of the Great Hall together, Remus leading the way. He didn't know where he was going exactly, but his feet took him to the edge of the lake as surely as if he'd meant to go there himself. He sat on the pebbly beach, and his wife sat next to him. He put an arm around her.

"It's strange," she said. "I don't remember what happened. Remus, what did we win?"

"The war. Harry killed Voldemort. It's over."

"I'd forgotten. I'd forgotten there was a war. Did I die?"

"I don't know. Molly seemed to think you had. But she thought I'd died as well."

Nymphadora gasped. "I thought you'd died, too! You _did_ die! Dolohov killed you, and then I was trying to kill him, and—" She stopped abruptly.

"Bellatrix hexed you."

"Did we really die, Remus?"

"Does it matter? We're alive now, which is a lot more than quite a few people can say." Remus looked at the sky. "I forget when the next moon is. I hope Severus will still brew the Wolfsbane."

"And if he doesn't?"

"I'll go to the Shack. And you will stay home with Teddy until I come back."

Nymphadora nodded, resting her head on her husband's shoulder.

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><p>From the castle, Harry Potter could see the edge of the lake. He watched as two figures, one with purplish hair, walked down to the pebbled beach and sat. "Hey, Hermione... who's that?"<p>

Hermione and Ron came to the window and looked down.

"It can't be..." Hermione breathed.

"Bloody hell, I'd know that hair anywhere. That's Tonks."

"And that must be Professor Lupin!"

Harry looked toward the Forest, where the Resurrection Stone lay hidden, never to be found. He looked at the Elder Wand sitting on the Headmaster's desk, then looked back out at the couple sitting on the beach.

Harry told the tale of the Resurrection Stone for many years to come, but he never admitted that Remus was among the spirits he saw that night.

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><p><em><strong>AN: **Yes, Remus and Tonks have had a bit of light amnesia from being mostly dead for a few hours.  
><em>


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